Thursday, December 29, 2011

Whiteout

Whiteout takes place in Antarctica, following U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko in her investigation of a murder at McMurdo station. The second part Melt has Carrie return to Antarctica, looking for Russian mercenaries who stole warheads illicitly stored at a Russian science station.

The illustrations are black and white, fitting for the landscape of snow and ice the action takes place in. There's nothing harder to draw than a whole lot of white emptiness and Steve Lieber does it extremely well. I also like his instantly recognisable characters (also not easy to do when everyone is wearing hooded parkas and ice gear) and the attention to detail.

The story is fast-paced, especially in Melt. I did figure out who did it fairly early in Whiteout, but that didn't dampen my enjoyment. It was still fun to see how and when Carrie figures it out and to see what she does with her knowledge. In both books, there's no easy way for her to solve the crime, a compromise must be made. There's a lot of grey in all that white after all.